In 1878, the Pea Island Lifesaving Station was established near Cape Hatteras, N.C. along one of the most treacherous shorelines on the East Coast, known as The Graveyard of the Atlantic. For the first ten years, the Pea Island station had an all-white crew or a crew of black men with white surf men, whose jobs ranged from patrolling the sands to assisting ships in distress. In 1880, Richard Etheridge, who served in the Thirty-sixth Infantry Regiment, United States Colored Troops division during the Civil War, took over as keeper and commanded the first all-African American lifesaving station in the country.

The lifesavers at Pea Island quickly gained the reputation of being among the best. Their most heroic effort was rescuing nine people, including the captain's wife and daughter, from the sinking on October 11, 1896. The three-masted schooner had run aground during a hurricane, and Etheridge and his crew, which consisted of Benjamin Bowser, Lewis Wescott, Dorman Pugh, Theodore Meekins, Stanley Wise and William Irving, braved the darkness and rough water to bring the passengers to shore. Etheridge ordered two of his men to tie themselves together with thick line. Carrying another line, which was payed out by their comrades on shore, the men would struggle two by two and swim through brutal wind, waves and currents. Upon reaching the ship, they secured the line and began carrying the passengers one by one to shore.

Kate Burkart was an 8th grade student from Washington, N.C. when she became interested in the Pea Island Station and its crew for a history club project. In her research, she was astonished to learn that the men had never been honored for their heroic rescue. At the insistence of her parents, Burkart wrote letters and sent her paper to President Bill Clinton and U.S. Senator Jesse Helms asking for their help to honor the men involved in the rescue of the . She also discovered that Stephen Rochon, an African American Coast Guard Commander, was working towards the same goal. On March 5, 1996, almost 100 years later, the men of Pea Island were remembered with honor and distinction. Richard Etheridge and his crew of six from the Pea Island Lifesaving Station were awarded, posthumously, with a Gold Lifesaving Medal of Honor.